This invention relates to the measurement of attitude of accelerating bodies, and more particularly to attitude sensors and control systems.
Certain known techniques for measuring and controlling attitude of a moving body commonly rely upon a gyroscope spinning about a vertical axis, or upon a liquid sensor, or upon a pendulum device responsive to downward gravitational orientation. However, the mass of a pendulum renders such devices also responsive to acceleration, and hence are not useful as attitude sensors in dynamic systems involving an accelerating body. Similarly, liquid sensors exhibit mass that affects attitude detection during acceleration, and also such sensors are vulnerable to vibration that affects surface characteristics of the liquid upon which sensing may depend.
Vertically-oriented spinning gyroscopes commonly operate as attitude sensors, but are usually heavy, bulky, expensive devices that are subject to precession and drift errors. They also suffer from poor reliability in rugged operating environments due to the moving parts that make up the technology which require periodic maintenance to keep the units operational.
Other known attitude sensors rely upon multiple GPS receivers at spaced locations to compute attitude from signals received at each location. However, such computation of attitude is subject to the distance inaccuracy of signals received at each location, and the spacing of the locations should be very much larger than the distance error associated with each such location, and this contributes to unacceptably large systems for making fine attitude measurements. Rate sensors of negligible mass such as ring laser gyroscopes have been used in attitude-sensing measurements, but are vulnerable to drift and associated long-term instability.
In accordance with the present invention, accurate attitude sensing is accomplished by measuring acceleration in three orthogonal axes and measuring angular rate about each such axis to compute attitude accurately relative to a vertical axis. Solid-state accelerometers and rate sensors are temperature compensated and are assembled into a small common housing for applications in rugged environments. Measurement errors attributable to fabrication misalignments, and the like, are calibrated out following initial assembly for highly reliable and accurate outputs from a compact, rugged assembly of components. Vibrating ceramic plates operate as rate sensors responsive to Coriolis forces to produce angular rate outputs independently of acceleration, and micromachined silicon devices operating as differential capacitors to sense acceleration in aligned directions independently of angular rate about the orthogonal axes.
A method in accordance with the present invention includes converting analog outputs of all sensors to digital values with stored calibration correction values. The signals representing total angular rate or rotational velocity about each of the orthogonal axes is integrated into a quaternion (i.e., a 4-element vector that completely describes the orientation of an object), and total angular rate is computed from the sensed and corrected rates. The direction cosines are computed from the quaternion, and the accelerations of the assembly are computed from the three acceleration signals multiplied by the direction cosines. Attitude and other parameters or orientation and motion of the assembly are derived from the data produced by the accelerometers and rate sensors within the common assembly.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a relatively inexpensive and compact-sized system generates an accurate representation of an attitude of an object. In particular, the system measures attitude for an object that may be accelerating, thereby overcoming the drawbacks of conventional attitude measuring devices mentioned above. Furthermore, such embodiment of the present invention provides a self-tuning system that automatically compensates for drift and that automatically updates the quaternion obtained from sensor outputs. The system generates highly accurate output data based upon measurements obtained from commercially available, low or mid-level performance sensors. In addition, the user of the system can provide input commands that can adjust the output data of the system in order to further compensate for factors in the environment of the system. This embodiment of the present invention also reduces the manufacturing complexity of attitude measurement devices by providing a calibration sequence that reduces the number of testing steps during the manufacturing process.
In another embodiment of the present invention, improved algorithms for attitude and heading calculations are based upon extended Kalman filter trajectory corrections, with accelerometers providing attitude reference information, and the Kalman filter providing corrections to the attitude trajectory as calculated from integration of rate sensor information. Extended Kalman filter algorithm involves intense calculations performed by a dedicated processor. A master processor calculates the attitude trajectory, and a dedicated or slave processor calculates the Kalman filter corrections and estimates of sensor bias. Resultant attitude errors are less than 0.1 degree under static conditions, and are a function of the dynamic acceleration profile under dynamic conditions. Typical results obtained under flight test conditions analogous to light-aerobatic maneuvers indicated only about 1-2 degrees RMS attitude errors.